Masq History

From Masq

A History of Masquerade MUSH, 1992-2019

Masquerade was one of the first Storyteller (White Wolf) MUSHes developed and publicly released. Its initial development began in December, 1992, and it first opened for public roleplaying in April, 1993. Set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Masq was an oWoD (Old World of Darkness) MUSH that at one point supported Mortal, Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, Mortal+, Fae, and even Gypsy.

Between 1993 and 1996, Masq closed and reopened a number of times. In 1996, the database corrupted and after a project that successfully reduced the db size, the game transferred to a new server. Masq was then stable for a number of years, with Diablerie serving as god of the game. During that time, Augury was known as Kuyan and staffed as Mage / Vampire Wizard and Site Admin. Eventually, she took over from Diablerie as god of Masq.

 In 2001, there was another database transfer / partial reboot, at which point Masq got a brand new grid. Existing characters were ported also and the timeline remained the same. The time period between 2000-2005 was an especially great and active time on Masq. To quote a former player, "Damn near twenty years later [we] still basically compare all roleplay to the standard of how Masquerade was in the early 2000s." 

By late 2005, the playerbase had begun to dwindle, and a massive db crash nearly resulted in the game's deletion. Although an older backup was reinstated, the game never fully recovered. In January, 2007, Kuyan made the decision to shut Masq down due to continued declining player interest and lack of staff support. The Masq bboard was enabled at forums.masq.org, where players could stay connected. 

In February, 2010, Masq reopened! It was a fresh start for the game. While the grid remained the same, all previous characters were wiped and the timeline was reset. The game system was converted to WoD Revised and all code/news files were updated accordingly. This Wiki was also created in 2010 and grew steadily, with staff and player contributions alike. Character types on the new Masq were limited to Mortal, Sorcerer, Psychic, Shifter, and Vampire.

For this reboot, Kuyan changed her name to Augury and continued on as God / Site Admin / Chief Storyteller. Until about 2016, Masq enjoyed a second Golden Age of RP. Players and staffers came and went, but Augury remained the driving force behind the game. She approved almost every character application personally, and ran numerous global plots. Beyond that, she encouraged players to run their own PRPs and supported them every step of the way.

Things began to slow down on Masq in 2017 due to various factors, but Augury still tried to keep things going. Earlier in 2019, Augury put the game on hiatus. She passed away on November 27, 2019. A few weeks later, the server hosting the game (and this Wiki) briefly crashed, resulting in Masq's shutdown.

This shutdown will remain permanent. Without Augury, there can be no Masquerade MUSH. She was the beautiful heart and stalwart spirit of Masq, and will always remain so.