The ruby pendant of l'Morai

The troubles of l'Morai are built upon a curse placed upon a magic ruby pendant some four hundred years ago. At about the time of the founding of Carnival l'Morai, the two co-founders, the brothers Cygne, were at odds with each other. André Cygne kept the pendant, a family heirloom and a warder against disease, to himself while his brother, Juron Cygne, wasted away and became disfigured thanks to the Fever. The experienced blackened Juron's heart, and he poisoned his brother, stole the pendant, and entombed André inside the Cornerstone of Carnival l'Morai. Juron thus became the first master of Carnival l'Morai.

Juron's act of fratricide and betrayal did not go without repercussion. André cursed the pendant with his hatred, making it a magnet for hatred. The ruby gemstone became marked with the likenesses of Quince the Horse on one side and the Ear-Tied Hare on the other. The symbololism marks the carnival master, as the bearer of the stone of l'Morai, as l'Morai's most influential person and yet the lowest of its freaks. Any bearer of the pendant falls under the sway of L'Morai, subject to become the avatar of its citizen's fear and hatred and forced to never assist the people of Carnival l'Morai against the City's citizens. The pendant was passed down through the centuries from carnival master to carnival master, all the way down to the Puppetmaster and, briefly before her death, Marie the Blind Juggler. If the Puppetmaster is to be believed, the previous carnival masters live on as members of the Council of l'Morai, unable to die of old age.
Perhaps as a consequence of the curse, Carnival l'Morai exists as a focus for the City of l'Morai's wrath. One mark of the Ear-Tied Hare marks a citizen as a freak and another marks one for death, murder at the hands of the city's citizens. The carnival folk bore the abuse and hatred of the city folk as degenerate reprobates such that the city folk remain sharp and do not turn on each other.

Following the murder of Marie, Hermos led the carnival people to escape L'Morai. Thus, the state of l'Morai in doubt. In the epilogue, the ruby pendant is discovered by an unnamed man with a cat face, whom immediately seems to become entranced by it. At the same time, some blonde children bully a black-haired child, thus implying the citizenry showing the beginning of bigotry once again. This may suggest that Carnival l'Morai may begin a rebirth even after the death of the latest carnival master.