Masks

"There are the events taking place in the town, which are real. And there is their stage adaptation, which is also real. There are the actors who play the protagonists and reenact the events of their lives (since upon loading, you’re reliving that short—or not so short—stretch of their deathbound journey). The actor walks out into the town, looking for inspiration, “walking the hero’s paths”. And there’s a fluid ambiguity in not having a clear way of telling who you are right now: the real Haruspex or Bachelor, living his life, about to die—or an actor playing his part and thus getting a chance to go back to the past?"

- Pathologic 2 art book

The Masks are characters that play many roles. They are the Executors and the Tragedians. Sometimes their presence is caused by in-game matters; in other cases, they breach the fourth wall in order to speak directly to the player — they often appear to explain discrete game mechanics.

They are your ever-present companions who guide you through the game — or perhaps deceive you. Whatever the case, they are definitely following your progress very closely. They also appear at the end of each day at the Theatre to perform a pantomime based on the events of the day.

It's hard to say how many Tragedians and Executors there are in the Town, and if the Tragedian and the Executor appearing here and there are the same two people or not.

Executor

 * See Executor.

The Executor is an orderly wearing a stage costume provided by the Theatre — a heavy cloak and a bird mask.

The Executors will appear as both plague orderlies in protective costume, as well as figures of the Sand Plague. These figures are often referred to as Talon (known as Claw in Pathologic) and Beak, two Executors with a meta knowledge of the game's events. They may be present during midnight pantomimes in both games.

Tragedians

 * See Tragedian.

Tragedians are the actors from the local Theatre. Tragedians dress in form-fitting black stage costumes and white masks approximating a human face. The Tragedian is a placemarker hero, a shade of what could have been were it not for you. Like all mimes, they're gently compassionate and moderately useless.