Termina has gained quite a reputation for its exquisite masks. Here, masks are both an art and a spiritual form of expression. A rather jovial traveling merchant was kind enough to explain the reason for this.
I know that you off-worlders may find our customs strange, but please let me explain. Here on Termina, our masks fulfill a special purpose. They are vessels containing all of our hopes, dreams and memories. Each unique mask that is created is an extension of the creator's personality. When a person wears his mask, he is exposing his feelings and inner self to the world. Even after he moves on to find peace as all things must, his mask stays behind, as a reminder of his presence, his triumphs and his tragedies.
However, there was one whose mask was feared and spoken of with dread rather than lovingly revered.
Long before the Terminians touched the stars, they were merely a small tribe of people. They lived happily amongst themselves, singing and giving praise to the giants. But far away from their huts and warm campfires, there was one shivering in the cold and assaulted by the wind, watching with hate in his eyes.
His name was Majora.
The son of the tribe's shaman, Majora had a hard upbringing. His mother gave her life for his, only for him to be thrust into a world that was unwilling to accept him. For you see, Majora was born with a powerful command of magic, and the people were uneasy with him. The boy could manipulate objects without touching them and could listen to the thoughts of others. Despite the disgust from the people and the growing bitterness from Majora, there was one child who wanted to befriend the lonely boy. That child was the only friend that Majora had, and they spent every day playing together as the rest of tribe became more and more fearful of Majora's growing powers.
On the day of the Carnival of Time, Majora played a juvenile prank. As a sort of revenge against the tribe's chieftain for his intolerance, the boy used his powers to simply loosen the man's clothing and bowels. Humiliated in front of his tribe, the furious chieftain approached Majora and released all of his pent up anger. He screamed at the boy, cursed him and spat on him as Majora's fury grew. It was when the man slapped him across the face that Majora struck him dead in front of the entire tribe. Horrified, the tribe immediately banished the boy from the village. With even his own father and friend turning their backs on him out of disgust, Majora was forced into the wilderness alone.
For a year Majora lived like an animal, foraging off of whatever he could find and catch, all the while hating the people who cast him out. He found that the more hatred he expressed toward them, the more powerful he became. So he set about plotting revenge.
A few days before the next Carnival of Time, Majora carved his own mask; a horrifying thing that he created with anger in his heart and thoughts of vengeance through power in his mind. On the day of the Carnival he wore his mask and snuck into the village in the midst of the festivities and the happy revelers, Majora climbed to the top of the sacred Clock Tower and made a proclamation;
"You people may have thought that you were all powerful and safe after you cast me out. I have come to remind you that I am the one who holds true power!"
With that, he descended on them to dispense his terrible revenge. Men, women and children were all joyfully slain, their very souls consumed to feed Majora's power. He laughed and danced throughout all of the worlds as he killed and consumed all those who wronged him. Eventually the people of every world came together and cried out;
"Oh, giants, please help us! The demon child we cast out has come to consume us all!"
The giants emerged to fight Majora, but by then he had grown too powerful for them to stop,
"You pitiful gods are too weak to stop me! Your pathetic power will soon be added to mine!" he laughed as he drove them back.
In desperation, the people turned to the shaman for a way to stop his son. The shaman proposed an idea; that all of the people pour the memories and hopes out of their masks to create one, all powerful mask. However, the wearer would have to be permanently bound to the mask in order to absorb and use the awesome power. As the people debated among themselves as to who would make the sacrifice, one lone voice volunteered.
It was Majora's friend.
Regretting his choice to abandon his friend, the child offered his mask to the shaman. So the shaman channeled the power of all of Termina's people into the mask. The child said goodbye to his parents and donned the mask, and became a fierce deity intent on stopping his old friend.
With the aid of the giants, the deity confronted Majora. For three days they fought, shaking the earth and heavens as the people cowered and prayed. Finally, the deity weakened the Consumer, however he could not bear to kill his friend. Instead he bound both himself and Majora to the Consumer's mask where he could do Termina no more harm. The people rejoiced and gave thanks, except for one. Majora's father, the shaman, left the tribe, consumed with regret and guilt over what he did to his son long ago.
Many have heard this tale and have come to hate Majora for his deeds. Personally, I pity him.
The mask was sealed away, but over the centuries far too many ambitious people have discovered it and tried to use its power with hexing rituals. All of them were manipulated by the Consumer into continuing his destructive revenge with the use of his power and all of them were ultimately consumed by the very power they seeked. It wasn't until the young Savior arrived that the evil was finally defeated for good, but that's a tale for another time.
There's one finally addendum to this story, some say that the shaman walks Termina still, as part of a self-punishment for abandoning and failing his son, forever unable to find rest until his son did. Even when Majora was put to rest, people say that the shaman continued to wander and repeat the tale so that no person could make the same mistake that he did.
Safe travels to you, off-worlder, and good luck in your noble quest.
As the above tale indicates, Majora is a demonic entity in Terminian mythology and something to be feared. Like the Skull Kid, he also appears rather frequently in other stories. However, though he is condemned by most people, his story reflects a rather tragic reality. On many planets disconnected from galactic society, the lack of knowledge of the Force has led to far too many Force-Sensitive children being ostracized and shunned by their communities out fear and ignorance. Some have lashed out, though none did so as dramatically as Majora allegedly did. Though this tale took place a long time ago, incidents such as this are still occurring even in the modern era. The most recent example concerns the fallen Jedi Desann, who was similarly hated and feared by his people and whom ultimately fell to the dark side, despite Jedi intervention. He was ultimately killed two years ago during the assault on Yavin 4. Interestingly, in this tale Majora is described as "the Consumer" due to his ability to consume the life-forces of other people. This is very similar to power tamed by only a few Sith Lords, with the most notable being the ancient Lord of Hunger, Darth Nihilus. Before his death at the hands of the infamous Jedi Exile Meetra Surik nearly 2,951 years before the Ruusan Reformation, Nihilus was described as having identical powers of consuming the life-forces of people as a way of sustaining both his power and his life. Eventually, he became powerful enough to consume entire planets before he was defeated above Telos. Even more intriguing, identical tales of granting power and manipulating people into performing destructive acts were attributed to his mask as well, however a direct connection to Majora is unlikely.
Today, Termina has a much more progressive attitude toward the Force. They are very welcoming of Jedi, and respect them greatly, even with the recent "incident" concerning the Sith-worshipping Disciples of Ragnos cult. What the ancient Terminians called "dark magic" is now seen as a normal part of life. In fact, earlier this year a young Zora girl was inducted into the Jedi Order, to the great pride of Termina's residents.
Finally, the mention of infusing masks into memories should be discussed. Though this tale might seem far-fetched, it is indeed possible to perform this act. The ancient Hendanyns were able to bind memories and establish mental links with masks, though the specifics of how they did this have long since been lost to time. It is not too unbelievable to expect that the ancient Terminians were also able to discover this secret and used it with their masks as well. Sadly, it seems that their technique was also lost. Today, a mask is still made by everyone during their childhood, but the mental connection is more spiritual than literal in the modern era.