I liked Joyce Harmon's Regency Mage series for the motivation of the Masquerade.
Basically, the children of Magicians are very likely to be not magicians so centuries ago the mundanes kill the magical children since those children were not able to defend themselves as well as adult magicians.
So the magicians went secret and "rewrote" history so people would believe that magic was "just silly stories".
Of course, there was the major problem that this happened world-wide which can hard to accept.
IE All magicians who were very willing to fight other magicians were Now Willing To Work Together To Hide Magic?????
Something I don't think I've ever seen done is a case where the Masquerade turns out to have been an open secret from the beginning, but it takes until the climax of the story for the /Supernaturals/ to find out that the mundanes knew. "Yes, Lupa, we knew all about the whole werewolf thing with you and your pack. We just figured that if you wanted to keep it a secret, not that you did a good job, we'd be polite and play along."
Talking werewolves, there were a few fringe cases of 'werewolves versus vampires' before modern times with groups like the Benandanti. Though it could be better argued as 'werewolves versus harvest-destroying witches', though the dividing line between the werewolf/therianthrope, the witch, and the vampire gets pretty thin in real-world legend and myth.
I think I could believe that in, say, a small close-knit town in the mountains. That's about the limit of what is plausible for a group where everyone is polite. (Small enough that being rude will ruin your rep with *everyone*.)
I liked Joyce Harmon's Regency Mage series for the motivation of the Masquerade.
Basically, the children of Magicians are very likely to be not magicians so centuries ago the mundanes kill the magical children since those children were not able to defend themselves as well as adult magicians.
So the magicians went secret and "rewrote" history so people would believe that magic was "just silly stories".
Of course, there was the major problem that this happened world-wide which can hard to accept.
IE All magicians who were very willing to fight other magicians were Now Willing To Work Together To Hide Magic?????
Oh, yes. Motives are a horrible problem when dealing with a large group.
An idea I had: they need to hide to preserve their power, e.g., anyone could learn magic but the mages would rather not share.
Admittedly, this kind of world building tends to shade into the conspiracy genre.
Conspiracies are rife in this genre. There's no way around them.
You might enjoy *Witch Hat Atelier*, where their motives are somewhat higher.
Something I don't think I've ever seen done is a case where the Masquerade turns out to have been an open secret from the beginning, but it takes until the climax of the story for the /Supernaturals/ to find out that the mundanes knew. "Yes, Lupa, we knew all about the whole werewolf thing with you and your pack. We just figured that if you wanted to keep it a secret, not that you did a good job, we'd be polite and play along."
Talking werewolves, there were a few fringe cases of 'werewolves versus vampires' before modern times with groups like the Benandanti. Though it could be better argued as 'werewolves versus harvest-destroying witches', though the dividing line between the werewolf/therianthrope, the witch, and the vampire gets pretty thin in real-world legend and myth.
I think I could believe that in, say, a small close-knit town in the mountains. That's about the limit of what is plausible for a group where everyone is polite. (Small enough that being rude will ruin your rep with *everyone*.)
Yes, it could really only work in a small community. I should've emphasized that. Thank you.