As non-intuitive as it may seem, it's surprisingly common to find a fictional work that depicts a society in which it is commonplace to wear masks in the course of everyday life, if not required by social convention; whereas in our real-world masks are generally only donned for special occasions, usually ones of great celebration or ritual significance. In extreme cases, these fictional worlds may punish those who go without masks, or their inhabitants may be physically unable to remove them for either magical or anatomical reasons.
Conventional wisdom dictates that characters in a story be able to express emotions — this is why Helmets Are Hardly Heroic. As such, it may seem strange to apply an opposing convention that covers faces instead, and indeed, even when this trope is in full force it may well be that only the main character is unmasked, making them stand out all the more compared to everyone else. But there are stylistic benefits to the widespread use of masks: for one, they can look like anything, making it easier to tell characters apart and, through use of symbolic shapes and colors, to indicate something about a character before they even speak. Additionally, faces are difficult to animate, and can look horrible if done poorly, so hiding them entirely can save a lot of effort, and the slack in expressiveness can be picked up through body language or voice acting. As such, this trope is found more often in animation and video games.
It's also possible to employ Expressive Masks, essentially making them alternative faces that are more vibrant and varied in appearance than normal flesh-and-blood faces. There is a whole bevy of mask-related tropes that become available when such a trope is in effect. In any case, Our Nudity Is Different may apply where showing a maskless face is taboo. Note that for the purposes of the trope, face coverings other than masks may count, including helmets, hoods, face paint, et cetera.
There are subtropes for situations and organizations whose members wear masks or other head coverings to show their rank or preserve their anonymity: Masquerade Ball, Brotherhood of Funny Hats, Secret Circle of Secrets, Malevolent Masked Men, Faceless Mooks, et cetera. May overlap with Enclosed Extraterrestrials or Little Green Man in a Can in the case of aliens. Superheroes and their organizations are covered by Secret Identity.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Bleach: A biological necessity in the Spirit World Hueco Mundo, since all Hollows have a mask as an integral part of their body. The Arrancar achieve a Next Tier Power-Up (and a humanoid body) through a process that removes most of their mask, but even they have some remnants fused to their faces.
- Junji Ito Kyoufu Manga Collection: In "The Town Without Streets", since the inhabitants of the eerie conglomeration of buildings are constantly being spied on by everyone else or spying on people themselves, privacy is all but nonexistent. The only way anyone can maintain a sense of individual identity outside of their house is to wear a mask. Saiko, seeking her aunt who is living in the town, initially doesn't have a mask but finds one discarded and starts wearing it.
Fan Works
- Vengeance of Dawn: In the zebra country of Grevyia, the highborn wear masks at all times in public, and removing your mask while alone with another zebra is a gesture of deep trust. Twilight has to organize a ball to welcome the delegations of zebras from both Grevyia and Quaggai, but she is not sure whether to have a masked event or not, because wearing a mask in Quaggai is considered sinister.
Film — Live-Action
- MirrorMask: Everyone in Helena's dream world wears masks, except the queens and the princesses (including Helena herself and her evil counterpart), without explanation. It's just one of the world's many odd quirks. Not all of them are face-encompassing, either: the prime minister's mask is tiny, the better to make it obvious he's a duplicate of Helena's father. Even non-human creatures like sphinxes and giants wear masks.
- Star Wars: The Tusken people, first portrayed in A New Hope, universally wear distinctive masks as part of their full-body costume. It's essential survival gear in their harsh desert environment but has become a strong taboo — they never show their faces, even to loved ones, except at very special times like childbirth and coming-of-age ceremonies.
Literature
- The Cosmere: Almost all southern Scadrian cultures, first encountered in The Bands of Mourning, wear masks. The precise protocols vary — the Malwish will raise their masks to emphasize a point, whereas the Hunters' adult masks grow onto their skin.
- Deltora Quest: Introduced in the third series is a troupe of entertainers called the Masked Ones, who are so called because they all wear life-like animal masks that the inner circle never take off after adulthood. Children and new recruits can take them off, but it is discouraged. It turns out the mask magically binds to the wearer and potentially brainwashes them in Lief's case, and taking them off after the binding is permanent causes issues. This revelation horrified every member of the troupe outside of the inner circle.
- Hayven Celestia: The kyacaotl
customarily wear ornate personalized masks, though a common pastime is playfully stealing the masks of others, humiliating the kya whose mask was stolen until they manage to steal it back. When a kya is exiled their mask is destroyed.
- The History of the Runestaff: The nobles of the evil civilisation of Granbretan (post-apocalyptic Britain) constantly wear masks, generally animal-themed, as part of their decadence.
- Imperial Radch: Masks are a standard wardrobe item on the planet Ghaon, making the protagonist of "Night's Slow Poison" quite uncomfortable when he has to interact with bare-faced offworlders. He advises one visitor to buy a respectable mask from a place that doesn't cater to tourists before visiting Ghaonish relatives.
- Isaac Asimov Presents: The Great Science Fiction Stories, Volume 23 (1961): In "The Moon Moth" by Jack Vance, on the planet Sirene, it's absolutely essential to wear a mask that conveys your social standing. This causes much difficulty for the Earthling protagonist, both due to the Culture Clash he causes and because he's investigating a murderer whose face is unknown.
- The Masquerade: Falcrest is known as the Empire of Masks because its citizens all wear masks when they're at work, whether soldier or mathematician or minister of Parliament, to make a point about meritocracy and how things like gender and race don't matter to the empire (even though they do, quite a lot more than Falcrest pretends).
"You can be anything you want in the Empire of Masks! Man or woman, rich and poor, Stakhieczi or Oriati or Maia or Falcrest born — in our Imperial Republic you can be what you desire, if you are disciplined in your actions and rigorous in your thoughts. That's why it's an Empire of Masks, dear. When you wear a mask, your wits matter."
- Pale: Within the realm of Kennet Found, every being present is compelled to wear some sort of face-concealing covering as a reflection of its creator Miss, who is a Lost who lacks a face and keeps the area where her face would be covered by her hair. This most often includes actual masks, but while in Kennet Found Anthem Tedd wears a face-concealing helmet, and the Foundling Shoe wears a shoe on his head instead.
- Radiance: The people of Pluto usually wear masks because of the poor-quality atmosphere.
- In Starmasters' Gambit by Gerard Klein, the Puritans are a society of always masked people dressed in black. The idea is that a person who leaves for a century on a space journey won't be leaving anyone or anything behind: once they return, everything will be exactly the same.
- Star Trek:
- The licensed Star Trek: The Next Generation novel Masks (not to be confused with the episode of the same name) involves the Enterprise crew exploring a planet where everyone wears elaborate masks to indicate their social status.
- In a bit of Canon Welding (due to inconsistent characterization), the Breen in the Star Trek Novel 'Verse are a multi-species society that is a strict meritocracy where all members wear face-concealing helmets and full body suits to prevent anyone from being favored or discriminated against based upon their species. It is strictly taboo for them to show their "true face" outside the privacy of their home or to anyone except their mate.
- Stravaganza: The trope is downplayed as it's not required of everyone, but the city of Bellezza (i.e., Fantasy Venice) requires all unmarried women of age sixteen or older to wear masks in public due to a previous ruler's vain streak. The first book in the series is even called City of Masks.
- Stray Cat Strut: Air pollution in New Montreal is bad enough that everyone wears a filter mask while outside, unless they've got cybernetic implants that provide integrated air filtration.
- Utopia 58 takes place in the Equalist Empire, a dystopia where everyone is forced to wear the same white masks, along with robes and voice modulators, in order to enforce equality by making everyone appear the exact same, with the exception of The Father who is allowed to wear a golden ornate mask. The heroes seek to rebel by throwing off their coverings and being themselves instead of part of a collective.
Live-Action TV
- Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: One episode involves people from a world where everyone, by law, must wear a mask (with a distinctive pattern on it, unique to each individual) and is absolutely prohibited from removing it in the presence of anyone else. One young man, the son of one of the leaders, wants to end this practice. At the end of the episode, he removes his mask, and Buck is astonished because he's a handsome, normal-looking human. The subtle horror is revealed when his father and the guards remove their own masks... and reveal that everyone on their planet looks exactly alike.
- The Mandalorian: Din Djarin a.k.a. "The Mandalorian" comes from a sect of Mandalorians who believe that they must always wear their helmets in the presence of others. Showing one's face is grounds for expulsion.
Tabletop Games
- Blades in the Dark: Downplayed. Masks are not particularly common in general, but are an almost universal apparel among the professions dealing with the ghosts and the supernatural. Every Whisper (a freelance ghost summoner/exorcist) crafts a unique "spirit mask" for themselves, which protects their mind from the horrors of the ghost field and some other side effects of their work. The Spirit Wardens (The Order charged with disposing of fresh corpses and the ghosts therein), meanwhile, all wear uniform bronze masks that protect both their minds and their anonymity, so they cannot get dragged into city politics.
- Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition: The Domain of Dread named Dementlieu consists of a large port city ruled over by an always-masked Duchess Saidra d'Honaire. While wearing masks is not required, everyone does so anyway, as the entire social life in the city revolves around weekly masquerade balls held at Saidra's estate, where the citizens compete for the Duchess' favor. The whole thing is actually a metaphor for the real state of affairs in Dementlieu: there are no aristocracy left in the city, but everyone pretends to belong to a higher class than they really do (works themselves into an early grave to maintain the charade). The biggest fraud of all is the "Duchess" herself, a megalomaniac from a peasant family who hides her insecurity by randomly "exposing" other people as pretenders and executing them. Oh, and her own masks hide the fact that she is undead herself. Dementlieu has existed as a setting since 2nd Edition but didn't have the emphasis on masks until the 5th Edition reboot.
- Shadowrun: Filtration masks are ubiquitous in many cities in the setting. Air pollution in most cities is severe enough to ensure that only people who can't afford masks go around with their faces uncovered while outdoors.
- Starfinder: The embri wear masks to limit their ability to display emotion, which they find shameful.
- Warhammer 40,000: Vhane Kyharc, Archon of the Black Myriad Kabal, is a Dark Eldar so self-centered and narcissistic he once released a virus on a planet that turned every living creature's face into his own. He also has the Trueborn in his Kabal get surgery so they all have the same face as him, and then has all of them (Trueborn and Vatborn) wear masks of his face, ostensibly as a precaution against assassination.
Toys
- BIONICLE: A vast majority of the Mechanical Lifeforms in the series (most specifically within the Matoran Universe) wear "Kanohi Masks" that for all intents and purposes are recognized as their "faces" — while masks can be removed and replaced, nobody stays maskless for long due to it causing negative effects, ranging from dizziness to falling into comas (or, with the case with the animated films, an active creative choice to never depict anyone without their mask). Even some feral Rahi are capable of wearing Kanohi masks. The many masks inherently carry some kind of power unique to their design, generally only accessible by empowered Toa and not the civilian Matoran.
- SuperThings: Fitting the "everyone is a superhero or supervillain" theming of the series, nearly every single citizen of Kaboom City wears a mask. Most often it's a Domino Mask, though a few choose goggles or glasses that invoke the same elements. The characters that don't wear masks are in the minority, primarily being citizens. When it comes to alternate outfits for the characters, the mask is the only article of clothing that remains on the ones that wear them.
Video Games
- 1000xRESIST: All inhabitants of the Orchard wear more-or-less face-concealing breathing masks at all times to protect themselves from the deadly Occupant virus. How elaborate one's mask is indicates a person status in the Orchard society: while shells and Miscellaneous wear simple, off-the-shelf models, full Sisters wear unique masks, ranging from the Watcher's relatively unobtrusive visor to the Fixer's mask that most closely resembles a fully-enclosed dirt bike helmet. At the end of the game, even after the virus is eradicated, Blue and many other sisters still continue to wear their masks because the latter have become such an integral part of their culture and identity.
- In Chants of Sennaar, all the cultures of the Tower wear masks or outfits that cover their heads, ranging from the hooded veils of the Devotees to the elephant-like gas masks of the Alchemists. No (human) character is ever seen without one, with the exception of the Bellman, who takes off his helmet to drink, allowing us to glimpse the back of his head.
- Dragon Age: In the Empire of Orlais, showing one's bare face is considered gauche among the aristocracy, which is why every noble wears an elaborate mask with their family's crest in public. Their retainers and servants are also required to wear less elaborate masks signifying their allegiance to their house (other common people are under no such obligation, though). All of this is just part of the Orlesian Grand Game of Intrigue, where the nobles constantly jockey for position and privilege with deception and subterfuge.
- Final Fantasy XIV: The Ascians are always depicted wearing masks under their hoods and Emet-Selch is the only one who walks around without one. This harkens back to the time of the World Unsundered, where wearing masks was done to denote that they were on duty for whatever job they were on.
- From Dust: The human population that the player helps in their migration, all wear white, wooden, masks.
- Genshin Impact: The Hilichurls are goblin-like creatures who always wear masks; it's theorized in-universe that it's probably because they don't like seeing the reflection of their faces.
- Downplayed in Hollow Knight. The bugs that make up the world's population have heads that are immobile structures of white chitin, in contrast to their more fluidly-moving and inky-black bodies, affecting the impression that they are all wearing masks. Moreover, some bugs can be seen wearing masks that bear a different appearance over their already mask-like faces. As such, it's difficult to tell how many characters actually wear masks.
- The Tenakth tribe in Horizon Forbidden West all wear obscuring face paint at all times, in a variety of patterns but with colors corresponding to their clan. While the style may seem like an exaggerated attempt at camouflage, it was originally inspired by distorted holograms found in an ancient museum.
- In The Journey Down, everyone has a mask-face which is based on a real mask from an African or Caribbean culture. This is not commented on (as there are no counter-example characters to note it as unusual) and is implied to be a consequence of the characters being spirits that don't come from the mortal world.
- Kingdom Hearts χ is set in the "Age of Fairy Tales" when the first Keyblades are created. The major characters who wear masks are the Master of Masters and his apprentice Luxu (who wear dark robes) and the Foretellers. These seven people are the oldest Keyblade Wielders in existence, and their true identities have never been shown so far. No one bats an eye that the five Foretellers' masks are always worn, at all times.
- The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask: While masks are not universal in Termina, if Link goes through Kafei's sidequests he learns that they're important to Termina culture, as Clock Town's weddings require masks and Kafei's mask is used to instigate conversation about him as a missing person, instead of just showing the characters a missing poster of him. Masks are also ingrained in Terminan folklore,note businesses,note artistry,note and spirituality,note among other cases. As a result, there are a lot more characters with masks than one might otherwise expect. All of them can be collected by Link as quest rewards, and there are 20 in total.
- Lies of P: The Stalkers — who make up the majority of human characters outside of the Hotel Krat — are all wearing animal-themed masks in keeping with the Pinocchio theme. Most of them never remove said masks, which leads to at least one case of identity theft — the Alidoro the Hound you meet in the game is an impostor.
- Little Misfortune: Almost all the people in Openfields wear "Happy-Face" masks that are advertised with the benefit of relinquishing the effort of pretending to be happy. Even Misfortune contemplates if she'll get herself a mask in the future.
- In Loom, all members of the Weavers' Guild wear obscuring hoods at all times. The legend goes that anyone who looks under the hood will suffer a horrible death. Big Bad Archbishop Mandible and his dragon doubt this, believing it to be a rumour. When Mandible is busy with summoning a portal to the Afterlife, his subordinate decides to test the veracity of the rumour by removing Bobbin's hood. Cue horrific offscreen screaming, as the man is reduced to a pile of dust. How the Weavers got this way is not explained.
- Mass Effect: All quarians are permanently shown wearing a fully sealed spacesuit, even on their nomadic space fleet ship interiors. This isn't by choice, but because they have a basically nonexistent immune system, and something that would cause a regular human a common cold or mild allergic reaction is likely to kill them. It's noted that residential accommodations include a fully sterile room where they can undress themselves, and their suits will automatically dispense antibiotics and antivirals if breached. Physical relationships with non-quarians require a lot of preparation and caution.
- Neon White: All of the Neons (sinners' souls pulled into Heaven from Hell in order to help the natives deal with an ongoing demonic invasion) are forced to wear animalistic masks, both to strip them of their past identity and as a Explosive Leash: should a Neon turn on the Believers, they can trigger their mask to explode (same as if they try to take it off). Towards the end of the game, it is also revealed that the masks are what gives Neons their superpowers, as they are actually the remains of true angels, who were slaughtered by the Believers (imposter angels) when they rebelled against God.
- The population of the aptly named city Facade in NieR all wear face concealing masks which they never remove. When the protagonist first visits, he's drawn into a side quest to rescue their King (who uniquely wears his mask to the side, leaving his face still exposed), who's gone to find a mask to prove himself. This is intended to make them seem quirky, as despite this oddness, their isolation, and their many strange rules, they welcome the protagonist, recognise the otherwise shunned Kainé as a hero (as she saved a young girl many years ago) and back the protagonist up in the final battle. Which makes it all the more of a Wham Line in a second playthrough, when you realise their hatred of the wolves isn't entirely justified.
- NieR: Automata: Androids have a latex coating of paint hiding their chrome bodies underneath, while Pods hide their tiny heads (with little eyes) underneath their boxy chasses. The Machines appear to have round orbs for faces - right up until they're driven insane by Eve and turned into insane cannibals, where the masks break apart to reveal the hideous, jagged teeth used to eat any androids or machines in their way.
- Everyone in the world of Sable wears a mask that represents either their occupation or tribal affiliation. Children are given special masks which they replace with a permanent one after their coming-of-age ritual. The purpose of the game is to achieve exactly this, as the title character collects as many masks as possible before deciding on one to represent her adult identity.
- Sky: Children of the Light: Downplayed. While you start the game wearing one and most of the face area cosmetics are masks, there are options for your Skykid to go barefaced with no repercussions. A good amount of Ancestor Spirits also did not wear masks.
- Star Control: The Utwig from The Ur-Quan Masters believe it to be shameful to go bare-faced in public, and thus have masks for every occasion. At least they did, until their world's most prized artifact, the Ultron, was accidentally destroyed. The Utwig promptly destroyed all masks except the Mask of Ultimate Embarrassment and Shame, which they now wear all the time in an act of mourning.
- Sunless Sea: In the port of Visage, everyone is expected to wear animal masks and stay in character.
- Sunless Skies: The spirits of the dead that populate the Blue Kingdom all wear porcelain death masks. Although they can shift them slightly in order to eat, the masks are their faces in some sense, and it's considered bad luck to see what's underneath — the masks only come off for the final procession through Death's Door.
- Super Mario Bros. 2: Masks are a recurring motif in Subcon. The most common enemies (Shy Guys, Snifits, and Beezos) wear masks, keys are guarded by masked spectres known as Phantos, and the traditional Level Goal takes the form of a Mask Gate that can only be entered after grabbing a crystal orb. This is a leftover from the game's predecessor, Doki Doki Panic, which was developed to promote the mask-themed Yume Kōjō '87 festival in Japan.
- Verho Curse of Faces: For six centuries, the world has been under an apocalyptic curse that causes people to die if they meet one another. Centuries of horrific deaths and human breeding farms later, someone finally realized that the curse triggers when someone sees someone else's face, and so mask-wearing became universal.
- We Happy Few: Most of Wellington Wells wear face-conforming film masks that force their mouths to smile constantly. It goes hand-in-hand with the mandatory drug Joy, made to keep the populace obedient, ignorant, and compliant.
Web Animation
- Autodale: All adults in Autodale wear identical smiling white masks when in public to emphasize the rigid, machine-like conformity of their society.
Webcomics
- City of Blank: Blanks specifically target faces, so covering even part of your face means they don't fixate on you. Developing or developed blanks are immune, but they still have to wear masks to blend in with humans.
- Everything is Fine: For some reason, everyone wears cute big cat-masks that hide their heads completely. They seem to be mandatory.
- Grrl Power: When an alien mercenary is convinced to join ARCHON for a period of time, one of the team members asks about seeing under her mask, with her replying with a specific circumstance where it could happen. Then they prepare to take a picture for her work badge...and she's still wearing the mask. The conversation strongly implies that everyone from her planet wears one:
Achilles: I guess Photo I.D.s aren't a big thing on your world.
Detla: They are not. - Here There Be Dragons: People in the Silver Kingdom wear metal masks based on their place in the unforgiving Fantastic Caste System — the higher they are, the less they cover, allowing the monarch alone to go bare-faced. Prince Adrian's mask is a small tiara that's magically fused to his forehead, and has it removed in Book 2 to renounce his father.
- Keychain of Creation: At some point the group meets with a tribe whose every member wears a mask. When one gets hurt, Misho asks whether it's acceptable to take off this mask to provide first aid on him.
- Ten Earth Shattering Blows: A downplayed example. All the nobles in Vezenia wear unique masks. It's considered shameful for a noble to have their face seen without a mask. The protagonist, Landa, is forced to remove her mask near the start as deliberate humiliation.
Web Video
- Doug Woolever: In his video, "Skin Theory”, he proposes that this (or more accurately, a World of Costumes) is happening at a large scale in SpongeBob SquarePants and that the use of body modifications and full-body disguises is not only common but also socially acceptable. This stems from the unexpectedly numerous gags (especially in the first 4 seasons) revolving around the removal of skin, use of fake body parts, disguising as someone else, revealing human anatomy underneath the character, among others. Notable instances of this include:
- Squidward wears an orange salmon suit in Dying for Pie, which would be the equivalent of a human wearing a costume of skinned flesh.
- In Imitation Krabs, SpongeBob takes off the head of a fish, mistakenly thinking it was Plankton in disguise, only to reveal a smaller fish inside. Even stranger, the fish says, “Everyone at the Head Enhancement Clinic said nobody would notice!” Implying that this phenomenon is so widespread that there are different facilities centered around the modification of different body parts.
- SpongeBob uses a fake tongue that looks and functions identically to a real one in Karate Choppers.
- The con man in Chocolate with Nuts uses a disguise of himself wearing bandages instead of putting the bandages on himself.
- The Gainax Ending of I Had an Accident where a gorilla, played by a live-action actor in a cheap gorilla costume, was perfectly disguised as Patrick shortly before.
- Sandy wears SpongeBob and Patrick as clothes at the end of Survival of the Idiots.
- And the most damning piece of evidence, in Doug’s opinion, is the fact that the entirety of MuscleBob BuffPants revolves around SpongeBob wearing fake, human-looking arms that are sold to the masses as an infomercial product. The other fish don’t notice that SpongeBob is wearing large, miscolored arms, which could be a joke on them being too stupid to notice, but Doug interprets this as being nothing out of the ordinary since these disguises are so normalized in their society. Not to mention that the shark in the commercial looks nothing like his old photo and a gag where Sandy rolls up her sleeve to show a muscular, photorealistic, human-like arm.
- Doug also proposes 3 sub-theories that, alone or in conjunction with the others, could explain the in-universe reason for this.
- The ritual aspect: the citizens of Bikini Bottom wear costumes in a complex ritual to worship a deity, such as the Flying Dutchman, who appears on Scaredy Pants because he found SpongeBob‘s disguise to be insulting. Doug does note that this theory doesn't explain every instance of skin/costume wearing, however.
- The mass psychosis element: the citizens have gone insane and become obsessed with costumes. As exemplified with Tom suddenly yelling aggressively upon the mention of chocolate in Chocolate with Nuts, the insanity wouldn’t be that out of character. But Doug does state that a big catastrophic event would have had to happen so that everyone would be affected, such as a parasite outbreak or the effects of pollution in the oceans.
- The costumed human hypothesis: the citizens in Bikini Bottom aren't sea creatures but humans in disguises that are acting out rehearsed acts for the viewers' entertainment, and not only that, they are acting on dry land, which not only explains how they can breathe underwater but also answers the show's many instances of Fridge Logic around its setting, like the presence of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy, fire, and other bodies of water being present in the depths of the sea.
Western Animation
- ¡Mucha Lucha!: Justified, as almost every character is a masked wrestler, and in masked wrestling tradition, a masked wrestler never takes off their mask.
- Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero: One of the many worlds in The Multiverse is Superhero World, a world where everyone has superpowers and is either a superhero or a supervillain. As such, several people in Superhero World wear masks.
