Masked Circle

The Masked Circle (仮面党, Kamen-tō in the Japanese version), also known as the Masquerade in Eternal Punishment, is an organized cult in Persona 2: Innocent Sin. Its members wear a distinctive circular mask. The Masked Circle was led by Joker, along with four executives based off four houses of the Zodiac.
==Appearances==
*Persona 2: Innocent Sin
*Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
==Profile==
===Innocent Sin===
The Masked Circle is a cult based on the Zodiac which centers its activity in Sumaru City. Their general objective is to collect the "Ideal Energy" of those who possess dreams, using it to raise Xibalba and eventually bring humanity into a Utopian age. Members are recruited after they have their wishes granted by Joker.
In truth, the Masked Circle is a corrupted, grown-up version of a children's group consisting of Jun Kurosu, Tatsuya Suou, Eikichi Mishina and Lisa Silverman, who met at the Alaya Shrine donning their Phoenix Ranger Featherman R masks. They befriended Maya Amano, whom they regarded as their big sister, and Jun especially as a loving mother.
In the Alaya Shrine arson incident, Maya was locked by Lisa and Eikichi in the shrine when she announced that she would be moving out, innocently believing she would stay if she could not leave the shrine, the exact day Tatsuya Sudou set said shrine on fire. Tatsuya Suou, having been stabbed in the back by Sudou, awoke his Persona that day, in the sheer rage he felt against Sudou, and burnt his eye out with it; Maya managed to safely leave the shrine, though the incident scarred her for life and led her to develop pyrophobia. Lisa, Eikichi, and Jun all decided to hide their masks in Mt. Iwato after the incident, having Lisa and Eikichi forget what had happened.
Jun mistakenly believed that she was killed in the fire, and came to resent the Masked Circle for this. When he grew up, Nyarlathotep manipulated him into fulfilling the prophecies stated in In Lak'ech, and Jun, becoming the Joker, organized the new, corrupt Masked Circle and selected several members as his executives.
The order would find its first bump when Tatsuya Suou, Eikichi Mishina and Lisa Silverman executed the Joker summoning ritual, as not only would Joker decide to let them live, but even forced the re-awakening of their Personas- Vulcanus, Rhadamanthus and Eros, respectively. Following this, the three, along with Maya Amano and Yukino Mayuzumi, proceeded to systematically shut down as many of the Masked Circle's schemes as they could, causing a great deal of annoyance to the cult.
First, their plan to force the activation of the curse of Seven Sisters High School went awry when the five destroyed the cursed emblems and took down Principal Hanya, their contact within the school. Later, they lost their contact in Kasugayama High School by taking out their servant, Yasuo Inoe (though they were successful in draining many students of their Ideal Energy during the attack).
However, this was offset by the sheer tenacity of the heroes: ironically, by spreading word of the Circle's activities, the heroes allowed the cult to grow exponentially in size and power as the idea of a secretive, immense cult orchestrating the disasters spread.
To distract them, the Circle "framed" Lisa as the third member of a new music group, Muses, intending her to bow to the producer - one of the Circle's Executives, Prince Taurus-'s authority, putting her under the control of the Circle. This likewise failed. King Leo was defeated in the Sky Museum, leaving only Lady Scorpio, Queen Aquarius and Joker as the remaining Executives. Not too long after that, Queen Aquarius would give her life for Joker, whose identity she had discovered, by taking a spear meant for him.
During the events of the Last Battalion invasion of Sumaru, Joker was horrified by the war being fought and ordered the Masked Circle to face down the Nazi invasion. The brutal confrontation was brief, as the Masked Circle was terribly outclassed by the far superior invading forces. Most of their lower-level servants were slain by the invading footsoldiers when attempting to defend Xibalba in Mt. Katatsumuri.
After losing many of his men there, Joker himself confronted the original Masked Circle, both in his normal shape and as Angel Joker, but was defeated by them. Lady Scorpio chose to turn against the ideals of the Circle when supported by Yukino Mayuzumi. When confronted about the truth of the happenings at the Araya Shrine, Joker gave up and reverted back into Jun, and Yukino sacrificed her ability to summon a Persona so he could gain it himself and join the Circle he had once abandoned as she tended to Anna.
Following this and the conversion of Joker to the cause of the original Masked Circle, the cult was left destroyed.
The four Houses of the Circle were each served by a special kind of zealot, wearing different-colored robes and carrying around a banner with the color of the House they served. They used special cards to create magic and their strengths and weaknesses were dictated by the same color of their robes.
Each of the Executives carried around a crystal skull, which could be used in conjunction with the masks of the cult to siphon the Ideal Energy of a person or a crowd. Some of their members wielded corrupt Personas based off the real Personas of the members of the original Masked Circle - King Leo, for instance, used the tainted Reverse Vulcanus, and Prince Taurus used Reverse Eros.
===Members===
*Joker - leader of the organization
*King Leo
*Queen Aquarius
*Lady Scorpio
*Prince Taurus
*Ixquic (servant to King Leo)
*Youichi Makimura (servant to Queen Aquarius)
*Yasuo Inoe
*Takashi Hanya
*Hiroki Sugimoto
*Shadow Tatsuya
*Shadow Maya
*Shadow Lisa
*Shadow Eikichi
*Shadow Yukino
*Lower-level servants (envoys of the Zodiac Houses)
*Various NPCs throughout the city who joined as a requirement for having their wish granted by Joker and gradually become affected by rumors about the Masked Circle being a terrorist group
===List of Ground Troops===
====Innocent Sin====
{|class="table p2is" style="text-align:center;" align="left"	Taurus	Taurus
Demon 	Level 	
Taurus Mask 3 	11 	
Taurus Mask 2 	22 	
Taurus Mask 1 	33 	
Taurus Mask Real	44 	
====Eternal Punishment====
Demon 	Level
Green Mask 	73
Yellow Mask	75
Blue Mask 	76
Red Mask 	78
Black Mask 	84
==Gallery==
Ideal Energy.jpg|Basic diagram of the Masked Circle's plans.
Masked Circle soldiers.JPG|Masked Circle ground troopers.
Taurus Mask 3.png|Taurus Mask in Persona 2: Innocent Sin
Leo Mask 3.png|Leo Mask in Persona 2: Innocent Sin
Scorpio Mask 3.png|Scorpio Mask in Persona 2: Innocent Sin
Aquarius Mask 3.png|Aquarius Mask in Persona 2: Innocent Sin
Black Mask EP.PNG|Black Mask in Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
Category:Persona 2: Innocent Sin
Category:Enemies
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Category:Organization